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Water Bill Puts La. Projects on Priority List

Posted
Friday, May 23rd, 2014 by

Louisiana's D.C. delegation praised their Senate colleagues Thursday following passage of a massive water bill. The Water Resources Reform and Development Act authorizes multiple Army Corps of Engineers projects in South Louisiana, including levees and a move to make the Mighty Mississippi even deeper.

The bill, which passed the Senate 91-7, will now head to President Barack Obama's desk for signature. The measure does not necessarily provide funding for the projects. Rather, the bill represents a Congressional priorities list of projects.

“This is a huge win for Louisiana that will provide significant coastal restoration, hurricane and flood protection, reforms to the Corps, accelerated projects, and of course, jobs,” said U.S. Sen David Vitter, who championed the Louisiana projects as the ranking member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “It’s easily one of the most important bills for Louisiana we’ll pass this year, and we got it done with a strong bipartisan and open process.”

Getting money to build the projects would require more legislation. The entire U.S. Army Corps of Engineers budget is $4.6 billion for the whole country, but the Corps already has a backlog of $60 billion in projects. One Louisiana flood control project, a network of levees known as Morganza to the Gulf, carries a $10.3 billion price tag. U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu made sure the project was included in the Senate bill after it was stripped from the House version, but acquiring federal dollars for the project appears to remain a long way off.

"It will take serious funding to make a $10.3 billion project like Morganza a reality," U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the President’s budget included an anemic $4.6 billion for the entire Army Corps of Engineers nationwide, the smallest percentage of the federal budget in the over 200 year history of the agency."